Items seized from the home of two Haymarket residents accused of the stabbing death of London scientist Robert M. Schwartz include knives, swords and documents pertaining to human sacrifice, according to a Prince William County search warrant made public last week. Michael Pfohl, 21, his 19-year-old girlfriend Katherine Inglis, and 18-year-old Kyle Hulbert of Woodbridge, are charged with murder following the Dec. 10 discovery of Schwartz's body in his remote home on Mount Giliad southwest of Leesburg.
All three suspects are being held without bond in the Loudoun County Detention Center and face a hearing set for March 7.
Officials have said that the three suspects are friends of Schwartz's youngest daughter Clara, a 19-year-old student at James Madison University.
On Dec. 11, Prince William officials issued a search warrant for a home in the 4500 block of Erin Drive in Haymarket, where Pfohl and Inglis live with his relatives.
Police seized clothing, shoes and cleaning supplies, along with at least nine knives, three swords and a machete.
Also listed on the search inventory was "assorted altar items," a "green rectangular stone plate," computer and disks.
Loudoun County Sheriff Steve Simpson has criticized reports that the stabbing death had cult-oriented underpinnings and denied earlier reports that a letter "X" was carved into the back of Schwartz's neck.
Simpson's investigators found multiple lacerations on the body, but these marks would be consistent with a frenzied killing resulting from rage, according to Simpson. He does not dispute that the suspects may have known each other through an interest in the occult.
The affidavit signed by a Prince William detective states that during the Dec. 11 search of the Pfohl home, police found "miscellaneous documents that contain language of killing and human sacrifice in a Wiccan fashion. Wicca is a cult which involves pagan rituals and sacrifices."
Wicca is an ancient, nature-based religion but according to "Living Wicca, A Further Guide for the Solitary Practitioner," by Scott Cunningham, Wiccan tradition states that "no ritual animal sacrifices may be made."
"The central, unifying theme of most laws: Wiccans simply don't cause harm to others," the book states.